Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
October 13
What Heaven Holds
There is joy in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner changes his heart and life.
Luke 15:10 (NCV)
Why do Jesus and his angels rejoice over one repenting sinner? Can they see something we can't? Do they know something we don't? Absolutely. They know what heaven holds. . . .
Heaven is populated by those who let God change them. Arguments will cease, for jealousy won't exist. Suspicions won't surface, for there will be no secrets. Every sin is gone. Every insecurity is forgotten. Every fear is past. Pure wheat. No weeds. Pure gold. No alloy. Pure love. No lust. Pure hope. No fear. No wonder the angels rejoice when one sinner repents; they know another work of art will soon grace the gallery of God. They know what heaven holds.
Revelation 10
The Angel and the Little Scroll
1Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. 2He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. 4And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down."
5Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay! 7But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets."
8Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
9So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey." 10I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. 11Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 119:17-24 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
g Gimel
17 Do good to your servant, and I will live;
I will obey your word.
18 Open my eyes that I may see
wonderful things in your law.
19 I am a stranger on earth;
do not hide your commands from me.
20 My soul is consumed with longing
for your laws at all times.
21 You rebuke the arrogant, who are cursed
and who stray from your commands.
22 Remove from me scorn and contempt,
for I keep your statutes.
23 Though rulers sit together and slander me,
your servant will meditate on your decrees.
24 Your statutes are my delight;
they are my counselors.
October 13, 2008
Erasmus
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 119:17-24
Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. —Jeremiah 15:16
For centuries, many Christians were not permitted to read God’s Word in their own language. Instead, they were encouraged to attend Latin services that few could understand.
Then, in 1516, the Dutch scholar Erasmus compiled and published the first New Testament in the original Greek language. This landmark work was the basis for the later publication of Luther’s German Bible, Tyndale’s English Bible, and the King James Version. These translations made the Scriptures understandable to millions of people around the world.
Erasmus could not have known the influence his Greek New Testament would have, but he did have a passion for getting its message to laypeople from all walks of life. In the preface he wrote: “I would have [the Gospels and the Epistles] translated into all languages . . . . I long for the plowboy to sing them to himself as he follows the plow [and] the weaver to hum them to the tune of his shuttle.”
The prophet Jeremiah reflected this same passion for the Word: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (15:16).
Having God’s Word in our own language allows us to experience the joy of meditating on it each day. — Dennis Fisher
More precious than gold is God’s Word to me,
Much better than pearls from deep in the sea;
For in the Lord’s Word I take great delight,
And it is my joy each day and each night. —Fitzhugh
The treasures of truth in God’s Word are best mined with the spade of meditation.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 13, 2008
Individual Discouragement and Personal Growth
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . when Moses was grown . . . he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens —Exodus 2:11
Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said to him, " ’. . . bring My people . . . out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ’Who am I that I should go . . . ?’ " ( Exodus 3:10-11 ). In the beginning Moses had realized that he was the one to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in his individual perspective, but he was not the person for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.
We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. It’s as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged, God comes back and revives His call to us. And then we begin to tremble and say, "Who am I that I should go . . . ?" We must learn that God’s great stride is summed up in these words— "I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you" ( Exodus 3:14 ). We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him— our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be "well pleased" ( Matthew 3:17 ). We are focused on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say, "I know this is what God wants me to do." But we have not yet learned to get into God’s stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Dry Holes - #5676 - October 13, 2008
Category: Your Hard Times
Monday, October 13, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
For many years, my wife's father managed to squeeze out a living for his family on their little farm in the Ozarks. It was always a battle financially, but the battle got really intense the summer of the long drought. First, he emptied all three of their ponds to get water; then all of the ponds on his parents' adjacent property. A friend, then, let him use his well that had never gone dry. Well, it went dry the summer of the long drought. Finally, Dad had no choice but to find water and dig a well on his property. But that meant mortgaging a lot of his cattle. And as the well diggers had to go deeper, it eventually meant mortgaging all his cattle. And they never found water. His farming days were over.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Dry Holes."
My wife's dad had the frustrating experience of desperately needing something to satisfy the thirst and pouring everything into looking for it, and coming up with nothing. That's a feeling a lot of people have - maybe you. But the search, in this case, is an emotional one; actually, a spiritual one. Where is the spiritual water that will satisfy that lifetime emptiness, that lifetime loneliness, that lifetime restlessness in your soul?
Maybe you have a lot of empty ponds behind you. Maybe you've gone looking in a special relationship, but it ultimately turned out just to be a dry hole. Maybe you've searched in your work, your religion, your studies, your children, your success, but here you are today as thirsty in your soul as you were when you began. It's been the season of the long drought.
It had been a very long drought for the woman Jesus talked to in our word for today from the Word of God in John 4:13-14. In her case, her "wells" had been a series of relationships with men that she thought would satisfy the needs of her heart. No one had. One day she meets Jesus at, of all things, a well. And He begins to talk to her about a source of spiritual fulfillment that would have that quality nothing and no one on earth could offer her. It would be "ever lasting."
Here are Jesus' words to all of us who are tired of sinking everything we have into what we hope will be a well, only to find out it's ultimately a dry hole. "Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Notice Jesus said, "I will put the source of your peace and your satisfaction in you." That's where no drought can ever touch it.
Jesus is making that same offer to you today. You see, the reason He came to this planet was because we were all cut off from the source of everything we're looking for. We're cut off from God by our sin; by a life of doing it "my way" instead of God's way. In fact, instead of the eternal life Jesus is offering, we're facing eternal death because that's what our sin costs. But Jesus loves you so much that He took your death penalty for your sin when He died on the cross. So now God can forgive you and come into your life and let you into His heaven when you die.
But it isn't enough just to have Jesus around you, which you may have a lot of because you have a lot of Christianity. But you may have never opened up your life to Jesus to be in you. Jesus all around you will never satisfy the thirst of your soul - only Jesus in you. And He's in you only if you've pinned all your hopes on Him to be your Savior from your sin.
If there's never been a time that you've done that and you want there to be. You want to begin that relationship with Him and finally find the love you were made for, would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I'd like to think we'd be able to help a little bit if you'd visit our website YoursForLife.net. Because if you go there, you'll find a simple explanation of how to be sure you have begun life's most important relationship. Or you can call for my booklet Yours For Life at 877-741-1200.
For you, the long drought can end right now, right where you are. It really all depends on one thing: what you do with Jesus.
